Breaking Barriers
by Ramora
Summary: Harry has now begun his fifth year at Hogwarts. It seems normal until the best and brightest students find they're failing at doing things that should be second nature. After scouring books for hours, the truth hits. Will two worlds collide?
1. Levitatia

"Swish and flick," Hermione said, holding Ron's wrist, waving it around much like Harry had when he'd first gotten his wand.  
  
Ron was pouting. "Hermione, this isn't working."  
  
"Just think of Wingardium Leviosa; it's exactly like that." Hermione was getting fed up and Ron still wouldn't listen.  
  
"Like that will help."  
  
Harry had already mastered the charm and was absentmindedly doodling his name on a piece of parchment. Meanwhile, Professor Flitwick was watching the class intently, noting Hermione's easy use of the charm on a rather large and heavy feather that was now floating a couple feet above her head.  
  
"Miss Granger, would you come up to the front and show the class your Levitatia charm?"  
  
Hermione turned slightly red and nodded. She brought the feather up to Professor Flitwick's small podium and, pointing her wand at the feather, clearly said "Levitatia," giving her wrist a slight flick upward. Nothing happened. The feather lay unmoved and untouched.  
  
"Perhaps a little more flick of the wrist, Miss Granger," he suggested.  
  
She tried again but with no success. Draco, lazily playing with his own wand, muttered the words and the feather glided towards the ceiling. The rest of the class started in amazement. Draco never was one for charms.  
  
"Thank you, Miss Granger." Professor Flitwick was still looking upwards at the feather, almost forgetting to dismiss the class.  
  
"Hermione, are you ok?" Ron asked, bumping into a smirking Draco.  
  
"I'm...I'm fine." If it had been any other student no one would have taken any notice, but Hermione was one of the more serious people when it came to her work, and there was no doubt in Harry or Ron's minds that she was clearly not fine. Neither Ron nor Harry wanted her to dwell on it, knowing she would beat herself up emotionally.  
  
"Let's have lunch," Harry said.  
  
"It was probably just your wand," Ginny suggested later that night in the common room.  
  
Hermione shrugged. "I guess it's possible."  
  
There was still doubt in her voice as she said good night. The two boys soon followed, heading up to their own room.  
  
"What do you think happened?" Ron asked when he and Harry were alone in their dormitory.  
  
"I dont know, but it obviously wasn't Hermione's fault. Maybe Ginny was right about her wand." Harry shrugged and climbed into bed, Ron following suit.  
  
The next morning Ron and Harry could hear Hermione's laughs ringing in the corridors and assumed she had come to believe Ginny's explanation.  
  
"Let's just hope Mr. Ollivander never hears of it. He'd probably die of shock at even the mere mention of a wand of his malfunctioning," Ron joked, biting into an apple.  
  
"Or hearing of someone almost breaking their wand in half," Hermione retorted, referring to the incident with the Whomping Willow in their second year.  
  
Ron went red in the ears as students around them chuckled.  
  
"Hey mudblood, did you finally find something you couldn't learn in a book?" Draco suddenly appeared behind them, closely followed by Crabbe and Goyle.  
  
"Shut up, Malfoy," Harry warned, his hand wrapping around his wand just in case.  
  
"My wand wasn't working," Hermione said quietly, almost sounding like she doubted it herself.  
  
"Right," Malfoy snorted and joined the rest of the Slytherins at their table. Hermione's eyes began to water as she buried her nose in Perfect Charms for Prefects. Seamus, who was sitting to the right of Ron, looked at his watch.  
  
"We should get to potions," he said to the three. Ron groaned, grabbing his bag and following Hermione, who followed Harry, down to the potions dungeon.  
  
"Go to your cauldrons," Snape snapped as soon as the students had entered the room. For the past two weeks Snape had been droning on and on about several different potions, but he said they were too complex to begin right away, and instead made them take notes.  
  
As Ron went to stand by his cauldron he said, "I never thought I'd be glad to be doing potions. My hand was starting to get a cramp from all that writing." Harry and Seamus nodded in agreement.  
  
"Come on!" Snape barked. "Cut your dragon's liver into pieces. Smaller pieces, Potter!"  
  
"I trust you know all the proper ingredients, Weasley?"  
  
Ron gulped as Professor Snape reached to look at his blank page, but sighed with relief when a Slytherin called Snape over for help.  
  
Hermione started to whisper her list of ingredients to Ron and Harry, who had mysteriously forgotten to write it down themselves.  
  
"A pinch of salt and a couple beetle wings, then stir," Hermione read, stirring almost feverishly with her other hand.  
  
"Why doesn't mine look like hers?" Ron pouted. His potion had turned an odd plum colour while others around him were a bright red.  
  
"You didn't add the salamander tails," Harry said, pointing to a small pile of tails lying near Ron's cauldron.  
  
"Mr. Weasley," said Snape as he rounded towards them, "perhaps you'd like to test your potion for the class?" He eyed the salamander tails, still sitting on a desk, happily. Ron cleared his throat nervously, but ladled a bit of his potion into a cup Professor Snape had handed him. He immediately felt the burn in his throat of a potion gone wrong, all the way down to his toes. At first, Ron didn't even think anything was happening until he looked down at his hand which was now tinted purple. The Slytherins burst into laughter, Professor Snape cracking a smile.  
  
"Go up to the hospital wing, Mr. Weasley. Maybe that will teach you to pay more attention in my class." Ron glared behind his, now blue, eyelashes and made his way to the door.  
  
"Now, Mr. Malfoy would you like to show the class how the potion should be?" Professor Snape was now standing next to Draco's cauldron, checking off ingredients to make sure everything was in order. Draco smiled an almost Snape-like smile, and began to pour his potion into a cup. After he took a drink, the class watched intently to see what would happen. Nothing did. The smirk on Malfoy's face faded when he realized his potion hadn't worked.  
  
"I don't know what went wrong, sir!" he pleaded to Professor Snape, who was looking as though someone had just thrown him an unwanted birthday party.  
  
Snape had a permanent look of disgust on his face as he said, "Mr. Malfoy, I expected more from my best student." He glided away, checking the other Gryffindors' and Slytherins' potions. 


	2. Grape Soda

"First you then Draco -- what's going on?" Harry asked.   
Hermione blinked a couple times, looking as though she were in deep thought, but shrugged. "There has to be a logical explanation. Really, what are the odds of my wand not working, then Draco's cauldron acting up?" the question seemed to bother her; Charms was one of her favourite classes and it was obvious Draco excelled in Potions.  
"Maybe we should tell Professor Dumbledore," Hermione suggested. Harry thought about it, but decided against it.  
"It might just be nothing, I mean, maybe there's just a magical interference that's throwing off Hogwarts. Maybe it's happened before ---"   
Hermione looked at him quizzically, "What are you suggesting?  
"Going to the library."  
Harry usually wasn't one for going to the library, but if they could get their answer he'd do it. Hermione nodded her head in agreement.  
"I've got an hour after Potions until Arithmancy," she said. "You get Ron from the Hospital Wing and we'll meet in the library."   
Harry would have answered, but Snape walked up just then.  
"I do hope you're paying attention, Mr. Potter and Miss Granger. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you," he paused, a malicious smile playing on his lips. "Like turning purple," and again walked away.   
The minutes dragged on until at long last Professor Snape dismissed the class, but not before giving them a 3 1/2 foot essay to write on the dangers of adding wrong ingredients.   
"Ron'll be thrilled about this essay," Harry said sarcastically. After putting his Potions equipment away, he grabbed his bag and headed up to the Hospital Wing, while Hermione headed towards the library.  
"Hello Harry dear," Madam Pomfrey said. She had warmed up to him over the years since he was almost a regular there. "Ron is in the second room, still a bit purple I'm afraid."  
Harry headed towards the room, almost swearing he heard Madam Pomfrey make a rude remark about Professor Snape.  
"Hey Ron," he said, opening the door. Madame Pomfrey was right, Ron still was purple, but not nearly as bad as before.  
"Hey Harry," Ron said, glumly. Before Harry could say anything else, Ron continued, "It's bad enough everyone knows I'm poor, but Snape doesn't have to rub it in that I'm no good at Potions."  
"Only the Slytherins laughed," Harry offered. "Besides, I don't think anyone will remember."  
Ron looked up, "Why?"  
"Malfoy's potion didn't work either. It didn't do anything to him, though. Well, it didn't do anything at all." Harry grinned a little at the memory of Draco's face.  
"It's kind of weird that Hermione couldn't do the Levitatia charm yesterday, and now Draco can't do potions, don't you think?" Ron sipped a bit of what Harry assumed was something to help with the purple skin.  
"Exactly. That's why I came up here. Hermione and I think that maybe it's a magical interference and that maybe it's happened before. She's in the library and we're supposed to meet her there, so let's go."  
Ron gulped the rest of his drink and started heading for the library, closely followed by Harry. Before they got to the door Madam Pomfrey came rushing up.  
"And where do you think you're going?" she asked Ron.  
"Uh, the library. I'm feeling much better, thank you for the drink," he said quickly. Madam Pomfrey couldn't argue, as Ron's purple skin had almost gone back to its normal colour.   
They walked quietly into the library, not wanting to draw attention to themselves. Madam Pince knew by now that if Hermione, Ron, and Harry all met in the library, they would be up to something. Even most of the students knew that, which made it difficult for the three to be in the library when they were actually studying.   
"Have you found anything?" Harry asked, taking a seat next to Hermione, who was surrounded by books.   
"I found an excerpt about magical disturbances, but they only happen on full moons," she said, flipping through another book called Magical Mysteries by Marvin Melockin.  
They spent a good portion of the hour looking up magical interferences in the indexes of books, but so far hadn't found anything.   
"I don't get it," Hermione said. "There's got to be something here!"  
"Well, there is, it just doesn't match up with what's happening here," Ron replied.   
Almost every book they looked in had something about magical interferences, but there was always a little detail that didn't add up. Either it only happened on a full moon [Hermione noted that the next full moon wasn't for another 2 weeks], or people would start turning into ducks, or even lose their taste buds.  
Harry found a book that said something about witches and wizards losing their power which got all three of them excited, until he read the part that along with that people would start talking in limericks, which hadn't happened.   
"I've got to get to Arithmancy," Hermione said, looking at her watch.  
"And we've got to get to Divination," Ron started to put books back on the shelves.   
"Hey!" He suddenly yelled from behind a bookshelf. "Do you think Professor Trelawney would know anything about this?"  
Hermione snorted. She still believed Divination was useless.   
Harry shot her a glance and said, "Well, it's worth a try. And she'd probably be thrilled that we're actually participating in class."  
Ron and Harry made their way up to the Divination tower, meeting Zac, a fifth year Ravenclaw, below the circular trapdoor.  
"Yet another day of exciting Divination, eh?" Zac said. Harry and Ron both laughed, following him up the stairs.  
"Hello class," Professor Trelawney slowly walked into the room, surrounded by a light purple haze of perfume.  
She sat down at her small circular table which held a crystal ball. The ball was propped up with what looked like a dragon's claw and the name Sibyll glowed faintly on it.   
She was about to start talking again but Ron cut her off. "Professor, do you know anything about magical interferences?"   
Professor Trelawney looked at him in amazement. "Well, I...have predicted magical interferences a couple of times," she said.  
"What causes them?" Ron asked, almost looking interested.  
"Plenty of things," Trelawney looked thrilled to see that the students were paying attention. "Sometimes it's the position of the stars and planets, it throws off the balance of magical air. Or there's a huge battle between Dark and Good magic." Professor Trelawney lowered her voice as she continued. "It's never happened, but a wise witch once predicted that Muggles would start being able to come into the wizarding world, which would also cause disturbances."  
"Muggles getting into the wizarding world?" Lavender Brown gulped.  
"Oh yes. Muggles being able to see wizarding places like The Leaky Cauldron or Hogwarts, or even getting powers!"  
Harry looked at Ron nervously. Professor Trelawney looked almost a little too excited.  
"Well, er, thanks Professor," Harry wanted to change the subject, a little disappointed that she hadn't revealed anything that might've been useful. 


	3. Cheryl the Unpredictable

Author's Note: It's funny, I used to be really proud of this story and now I'm not so sure. I only began writing it in the beggining of November, but I think I've already changed immensly as a writer and now reading over this it's a bit embarrassing. Nonetheless, I'm going to post the chapter anyway. Thank you to anyone reading this for being patient.  
  
  
"Did Professor Trelawney say anything?" Hermione asked at lunch. Harry took a small bunch of grapes, popping them in his mouth one at a time.  
  
"She did mention something about a witch predicting magical interference due to muggles being able to get into wizarding places," Ron said apprehensively, then added, "You don't think it's that serious, do you, Hermione?"  
  
Hermione considered it for a moment.  
  
"I don't know," she confessed.   
  
"Knowing Hogwarts and our luck, it probably is," Ron sighed, also taking a couple of grapes.  
  
"I suppose it's worth a try looking up in the library, don't you think?" Hermione asked.  
  
Ron shrugged in response.  
  
"Harry?"  
  
"Hmm? Oh, yeah, sure. Maybe under Muggle invasions."   
  
Harry slowly ripped off the skin of a grape, deep in thought.   
  
The rest of the day happened without incident, to the disappointment of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. In fact, days went by with no incident. Homework pushed thoughts of the two strange happenings to the back of their minds until exactly two weeks after Hermione had failed the Levitatia spell in Charms. Shocking news came on the morning of October 15th when Ron's daily issue of The Daily Prophet was almost dropped into his glass of milk by a huge tawny owl.  
  
"Harry, Hermione, look at this!" Ron showed them a picture which Harry recognised as Platform Nine and Three Quarters.   
  
Ron started reading aloud, "The evening of October 14th was a confusing one for many Muggles and wizards. Muggles, hanging around the platform many Hogwarts' students use to get onto the train, were able to get through the platform. The Ministry of Magic was alerted immediately and able to modify the memories of Muggles who got onto the platform, but no one has a clue as to how they were able to get in."   
  
Evidently, other students had got The Daily Prophet as well and were talking about it excitedly. From the looks of it though, it seemed a few were scared.  
  
"Do you think this has anything to do with what happened to you and Draco?" Ron asked worriedly.  
  
"It almost wouldn't make sense if it weren't," Hermione replied.  
  
"Professor Trelawney did say something about that witch predicting Muggle invasions," Harry reminded them.  
  
"You've got Divination today, don't you? Ask her what the witch's name was, - maybe there's information about her prediction in a biography."  
  
"Good idea," Harry said.   
  
Ron was a little apprehensive, after the first time asking Professor Trelawney about it, he seemed a little put off at the idea of asking her again. Harry must've noticed the look on Ron's face.  
  
"I'll change the subject if she starts going off," he assured Ron.  
  
Hermione looked confused, "What are you two talking about?"  
  
"The last time we asked, Professor Trelawney seemed almost excited at the fact that there could be a Muggle invasion," Ron replied.  
  
Hermione shrugged and changed the subject while Ron began reading other articles in The Daily Prophet. Meanwhile, Harry sat in deep thought. What if that witch's prediction was true? What would happen to Hogwarts? Or the wizarding world itself? He shuddered at the thought of the Dursley's having magical powers.   
  
"Come on, let's go."   
  
Ron was tugging at Harry's arm. They trudged up to Divination, a look of doom on Ron's face as they got to the pull-down door. Most of the class was already there, some looking only mildly interested in what Professor Trelawney was saying.  
  
"Hello, boys," she said, a little misty-eyed. "I'm going to be doing some more personal predictions for all of you today."   
  
Harry groaned. Whenever she did his prediction, he was always surely going to die.  
  
"Uh, Professor, I have a question," Harry said quickly, before she could start. "Who was the witch that you said predicted the Muggle invasion?"   
  
"Oh, Professor!" Lavender squealed. "Muggles were able to get onto the Platform yesterday!"  
  
Professor Trelawney nodded knowingly. "Yes, I predicted that myself, but didn't want to alarm anyone."  
  
Ron snorted, covering it with a cough. "Yeah, right," he whispered to Harry.  
  
"Tell us more!" Parvati Patil was practically falling off her seat with excitement.  
  
"Well," Professor Trelawney began. "The first prediction of such an event happened hundreds of years ago, when a witch by the name of Cheryl the Unpredictable looked into her crystal ball and saw Muggles invading once all-wizarding places. At that time no one took predicting very seriously and ignored her, until Muggles started getting into places like Hogsmeade."  
  
"So it's happened before?" Harry asked.  
  
"Oh, yes! But that's not what she was predicting. She was predicting something even greater and more horrible. She predicted that the barriers between the Muggle and wizarding worlds would crumble, that we would no longer be divided but live as one."   
  
----  
  
Both Harry and Ron shuddered, thinking over what Professor Trelawney had said.  
  
"Oh, come on you two, you don't really think that's true, do you?" Hermione was sitting in a chair in front of the fire in the Gryffindor Common Room, listening to Harry re-tell what had happened  
in Divination.  
  
"I don't know, Hermione," Harry confessed. To him, it made sense.   
  
"It's worth a look in the library, I suppose," she said, standing up to pace the room a bit. It was getting late when they'd finally decided to go to the library.  
  
"Why do we have to go now? Can't we wait until morning?" Ron was trailing behind, thinking of his non-existent essay that was due to Professor Snape tomorrow.  
  
"We're not forcing you to come, Ron," Hermione pointed out. He would have said something back, but just then Professor McGonagall came striding up the corridor.  
  
"What are you three doing in the corridors so late?" she questioned.  
"We're going to the library to look up information about Transfiguration," Hermione smiled sweetly, knowing she had hit her mark.   
  
Professor McGonagall smiled back saying, "If Madam Pince has a problem with you there, tell her to come talk to me." With that she walked away.  
  
"Nice job," Ron said appreciatively.   
  
They made their way, quietly, to the library. To the relief of all three, Madam Pince was helping another student find a book and didn't look like she would be done anytime soon.   
  
"Where should we look?" Harry asked.  
  
"The Divination section, most likely," Ron replied, a little sarcasm in his voice. Harry and Ron took seats at a table near the back while Hermione went to the Divination section.  
  
"What did you say her name was?" Hermione asked from behind a shelf of books.  
  
"Cheryl the Unpredictable," Harry and Ron responded in unison.   
  
A minute later Hermione yelled [as much as you can yell in a library without getting in trouble] "Found her! Why didn't I see this before? There's a ton of books on her."   
  
Hermione sat down at the table, holding three very thick books.  
  
"They're all on her?" Ron asked in amazement.  
  
"Well, one of them is a biography and the other two are on famous witches and wizards that were fortune tellers."   
  
She started flipping through a book, handing the other two books to Harry and Ron. The minutes dragged by slowly as they turned each page, only skimming the pages. Cheryl the Unpredictable had made more predictions then they had originally thought. Not helping the situation was the fact that most of them were also very complex and detailed, taking up at least ten pages each.   
  
Ron looked at his watch nervously, his eyes also darting towards Madam Pince. "It's almost 9," he said.  
  
"Let's just check them out, we can read the rest of the books in the Common Room."   
  
Hermione gathered the books out of their hands and walked towards Madam Pince.   
  
"Can I check these out?" she asked.  
  
Madam Pince looked down her nose at the books Hermione was holding. She nodded, leading Hermione to a desk near the library doors, scanning the bar codes of the books on a machine that looked eerily like the ones at Muggle libraries.   
  
"Ok, let's go," Hermione said to Harry and Ron, who were still sitting at the table, talking about something. They headed back to the Common Room, being careful not to run into any teachers on the way.  
  
"I hope Professor McGonagall doesn't ask Madam Pince what books we got," Ron said, mumbling "trick or treat" to the Fat Lady. The painting swung open, letting the three crawl through.  
  
"You're starting to sound like Hermione," Harry laughed, following Ron into the Room.  
  
"I resent that," Hermione retorted. She suddenly stopped short. Harry and Ron followed her eyes to pair of red heads sitting in chairs in front of the fire. She suddenly hid the books behind her back and put on a fake smile.  
  
"Hermione, my lovely!" George said sweetly.  
  
"Up to no good again, Ron?" Fred smiled.  
  
"I could say the same about you," Ron replied. George and Fred shrugged.  
  
"We won't tell if you won't," George said.  
  
"Deal."   
  
Ron sat down in a chair. "Hermione, I don't think George or Fred are really going to care." Hermione was still hiding the three books behind her back. She sighed reluctantly.  
  
"Care to share?" Fred said, peering with a look of interest over George's shoulder.  
  
"Yes, do." George was looking, too.  
  
Hermione instinctively covered the books with her hands.  
  
"Aw, come on." George pouted.  
  
"Only if you're going to tell us what you're doing," Ron said, knowing that would get rid of them.  
  
"All right, all right, we're going." Fred and George gathered up their things and headed to seventh year boy's' dormitory.  
  
"Now that they're gone..…" Ron grabbed the book he had been looking at in the library and flipped to the page where he'd left off earlier.  
  
Again, the minutes passed by slowly, and Harry and Ron made small conversation while skimming.  
  
"I've found something!" Hermione said excitedly.  
  
Both the boys had been sprawled out on the floor but now jumped up to join Hermione at her side.  
  
"Look at this." She pointed to the page she was looking at.   
  
She read, "Perhaps one of Cheryl the Unpredictable's most popular predictions was the one about Muggle invasions. Cheryl predicted in the 21st century, barriers protecting the wizarding world would crumble, leaving them vulnerable to Muggles. Not only that, but she also said Muggles would start gaining wizarding powers, and many wizards would experience 'magical shortages' periodically."  
  
Harry, Ron, and Hermione all looked at each other.  
  
"I think we just got our answer," Harry said, his face draining of colour. 


End file.
